Okay, so I’m a golf cart guy, have a golf cart wheel/tire online shop I like. Just did an upgrade on a 2013 GEM eL to a Tesla battery from Inwo (more on that in a separate topic). Got the spoof, gonna go 40 (not installed), but the 8 year old tires and skinny wheels are out of round (whump-whump) at 25mph, going to be unbearable at 40, so I got some sweet rims and 23" tall, 10" wide tires on the way. First mistake was getting the wrong lug nuts, which showed up today - for old GEM, 10mm. So, after digging to find the correct size (M-12 x 1.5 pitch, yes?) lug nuts, I’m seeing comments that the offset is going to make my cart dangerous, and 23" is a bad way to go. NOW - I took 300 lbs off the truck by changing to the Tesla battery, so acceleration is NOT an issue on the 21s - in fact I can burn rubber on most surfaces with hard acceleration. I get the offset issue, however. What IS the stock offset for GEM? The wheels have not shipped yet, so I can possibly undo this blunder if I get info in time. Anybody got the 411 on this? Thanks in advance!
Offset on stock GEM’s is zero -
I run 17" wheels with -38 offset on my 2016 without an issue.
The issue with 23" wheels and 10" wide tires is you will likely not be able to fit them into wheel wells of the rear spat. I think the wells are only like 8" wide.
Also you will have to raise the spat quite a bit to fit those big boys under there.
I have not heard of many or any going much over 17" wheels without major mods.
12" rims and 23" overall diameter - stock is 21", so add 1" front, back and top. Mine is an eL - the TRUCK - rear clearance is not an issue. Just worried about offset. Good to know you are running -38 without issue. Thanks for that info.
See rear clearance:
Oh, that is a huge difference… LOL
Mine are 24.3" tall - but I have a 2016, you should be fine with 23" on a classic.
2014 24.5" tall . installed spacers to align wheels and make them fit
-38mm is an inch and a half. You don’t get torque-steering from that? (wheels pulling one way or the other during acceleration). Stable at speed? I have to say I’m surprised if the answer is no, and it sounds like it is. Wow.
I run 2" spacers on the front to clear the shock and 1.5" spacers in the back for the same reason.
Tires are almost 8" wide on 17" wheels. She run true and smooth. Much better than stock actually as I am getting a little wider stance on the ground.
I have an AC conversion with 8kw motor, custom 10.1 gears and a full 25s Tesla battery. She will run up around 64mph and is rock steady - for the most part. Like with any GEM the suspension is not the best so it can get away from you if you are no paying attention at those speeds. At 40mph I can take my hands off the wheel and cruise for miles… so I have heard.
The spacers are just correcting the offset in the wheels. So the tires same in the same position. You are NOT increasing track.
@LithiumGods - you are correct, sorry I stated that wrong, but the wider tires do help with stance.
Almost double what my stock tire width was.
So, negative offset gives wider stance. Adding spacers reduces offset even further. Front-wheel drive cars usually have zero or positive offset. I’m confused when you say your offset is “-38” but now I’m really wondering what that means after adding spacers? Is this your final result after spacers? Your wheels look like front/AWD design that may have started with a positive offset. Your GEM is by far the sickest (in a good way) I’ve ever seen, BTW. Very, very cool.
Your spacers bring the wheel back to zero offset.
With my -38 my wheels would to far in toward the car.
In my case I used 1.5" spaces on the front (brings the wheel out away from the hub) and 2" spaces on the back.
You will need different size spacers to make it fit your car, but in general 25mm is one inch, you may have to use a shorter or longer spacer to get the wheel centered in the wheel well, that will depend on tire width.
My problem I think it’s going to be that you can’t un-space. Golf cart wheels have negative offset - they are already wider stance - rear wheel drive. I would need negative spacers to get my wheels back to zero offset. That kind of defies the laws of physics.
(231) 715-0118
All depends on what wheels you order - you want something with a negative offset so you can correct it.
What’s your wheel/tire source? Where I live, online is my only option. No tire shops in the area.
ebay is where I get mine.
Not to argue with you, but I think you have your negative and positive offset backwards. Negative offset puts the wheels out wider. Positive offset brings them in. Positive offset can be corrected with spacers, negative offset cannot. At least that’s from everything I know from cars and from doing research at sites like tiresize.com
Hey - your correct - I was thinking backwards- mine at +38 offset. Sorry for the confusion.
Okay, so I know everyone is on pins and needles to see how this all came out LOL, but I thought I should do some followup. I cancelled the golf cart wheels because of the negative offset - it would have been a disaster as I was warned. After a lot of searching on the internet, I found a pretty cool site/place called “Custom Offsets” that hooked me up with a set of 4x100 zero offset 15" rims, and some Toyo 195/50 R15s. Not super cheap, but half what I paid for my last set of rims and tires from Tire Rack. The place is based in Appleton, WI, and the guy I talked to, “Nick O,” well we hit it off pretty good - great guy and really knows his stuff. A lot of places (Tire Rack) just said, “no, we don’t do those.” So, they will be here in about 10 days, will post a follow up to this follow up. Thanks to everybody who chimed in with advice, you all saved me from what would have been a bad experience. This is a great group! Oh - final inflated diameter will be 22.7" - I am not planning on having fitment issues with the eL (truck). Lots of clearance all around (especially since my right front fender is already broken off, HA!).
Got them today!! Found that with an 8" wide rim, zero offset, I’m going to need maybe a 5mm spacer to clear the shock towers in front, only on full-lock turn. Ran them today without locking the steering and the difference was amazing. I felt no loss of acceleration, just a smoother ride and better handling. And they look great!! Photos:
Before:
After:
(yes, I need some body/cosmetic work. All in due time…)
Awesome - Glad it all worked out for you!! Looks great.